Site24x7.com Targets Web Hosts, MSPs with WHMCS Integration

Site24x7.com Targets Web Hosts, MSPs with WHMCS Integration
Resellers Using WHMCS Platform Can Easily Expand Value-Added Offerings to Include Website Monitoring Services

PLEASANTON, Calif. - April 18, 2013 - Site24x7, the cloud infrastructure monitoring service from ManageEngine, today announced immediate support for WHMCS, the all-in-one billing and client management platform from WHMCS Ltd. The move lets web hosting and domain registration companies, IT services resellers, and MSPs use their existing WHMCS platform to quickly and conveniently resell Site24x7 services to their customers.

WHMCS is one of the most popular billing and support solutions used by web hosts, developers and domain registration companies around the world. However, when these companies wanted to add Site24x7 services for resale in their own service portfolios - prior to the WHMCS integration - they had to maintain a separate billing and client management procedure to support the Site24x7 reseller program.

"Infrastructure monitoring is moving to the cloud, and that's giving MSPs and other resellers exciting new value-added services to offer their customers," said Gibu K. Mathew, director of product management, Site24x7.com. "Our organization has a proven suite of website and cloud infrastructure monitoring solutions serving more than 72,000 established and emerging enterprise customers and hundreds of partners worldwide. Our new WHMCS integration makes it as easy as possible for web hosts, MSPs and the countless others using WHMCS to add Site24x7 to their menu of services."

Highlights of Site24x7's WHMCS Integration

Once a WHMCS user has registered as a Site24x7 reseller, the integration set-up simply requires installing a Site24x7 software plug-in into the WHMCS software installation. Once installed, the plug-in lets web hosts, MSPs and others resell Site24x7 services to their end customers while using their existing WHMCS installations. In turn, the end customers get a versatile, hassle-free self-service portal that lets them easily login and purchase website monitoring services right away.

Other highlights of the Site24x7 WHMCS integration include:

Sell the Site24x7 website monitoring suite - All of the cloud infrastructure monitoring services can be sold from the WHMCS platform - from website monitoring and other basic services to server, web app and SLA monitoring.
Easy integration with existing website - Site24x7 services can be added by a web hosting provider, MSP or other reseller website without any modification.
Integrate payment gateway to Site24x7 via WHMCS - Instead of processing payments for Site24x7 via purchase order, resellers can automate payments via payment gateways supported by WHMCS.
Encourages working with partner-friendly Site24x7 - Site24x7 white label resellers can purchase Site24x7 services at a discount and decide their own pricing.
Pricing and Availablility

The WHMCS plug-in is immediately available for registered Site24x7 WHMCS resellers only. Contact Site24x7 support at http://www.site24x7.com/contact-support.html and get your starter kit now.

For more information on Site24x7, please visit https://www.site24x7.com/; follow the blog at https://blogs.site24x7.com/, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Site24x7 and on Twitter at @Site24x7.

Related Site24x7 Resources

Customer Testimonials: https://www.site24x7.com/site24x7-testimonials.html
User Guide: http://help.site24x7.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Site24x7
About Site 24x7

Site24x7 is a cloud infrastructure monitoring service from ManageEngine that helps monitor the uptime and performance of websites, online applications and servers. The monitoring is done from 40+ locations across the world, thus giving you a global perspective of the end-user experience. Site24x7 supports monitoring HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, TCP, IMAP, SSL, Ping, FTP, SFTP, DNS and other internet facing network services. For more information on Site24x7, please visit https://www.site24x7.com/; follow the blog at https://blogs.site24x7.com/, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Site24x7 and on Twitter at @Site24x7.

About ManageEngine

ManageEngine delivers the real-time IT management tools that empower an IT team to meet an organization's need for real-time services and support. Worldwide, more than 72,000 established and emerging enterprises - including more than 60 percent of the Fortune 500 - rely on ManageEngine products to ensure the optimal performance of their critical IT infrastructure, including networks, servers, applications, desktops and more. ManageEngine is a division of Zoho Corp. with offices worldwide, including the United States, India, Japan and China. For more information, please visit http://www.manageengine.com/; follow the company blog at http://blogs.manageengine.com/, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ManageEngine and on Twitter at @ManageEngine.

Media Contact:

Gitanjali Sreepal (Geet)
ManageEngine
gitanjali.s@manageengine.com
Follow us on Twitter: @manageengine

The best small business Web hosting services, 2012

Check out the latest top Web hosting services for business. I've included a range of services that cater for everything from a small blog all the way up to an enterprise level eCommerce site.

I'll talk about how to choose the right Web hosting service for you and your business at the end of this article.

[UPDATE]: Need advice finding the right Web hosting or Web design software service? Check out How do I choose the best small business Web hosting package?

It's also important to note that I have included a few companies that aren't necessarily dedicated website hosting services. For example, some companies offer eCommerce Web software that is hosted by them, others offer file hosting service via the cloud. Since these services are often a good fit for small businesses, I've included them in the list for completeness.

Let's look at the world's best Web hosting companies for 2012:

GoDaddy Virtual Dedicated Hosting

GoDaddy is really known as a domain registrar, but they offer plenty of hosting options - and they've done a good job too.

plan because it is seriously cost effective and comes with plenty of support and value added features.

You can choose from a range of operating systems, their network has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, they offer 24/7 support, with network monitoring and security and a generous server resource package.

Plus you get a few hundred dollars worth of advertising on the various search and social networks. Nice!

How much you can expect to pay

Between $30 and $120 per month depending on your requirements.

Dedicated WordPress hosting with WP Engine

With so many WordPress blogs and websites online, I had to include a hosting service that specializes in hosting WordPress sites.

WP Engine offers both standard hosting for WordPress sites as well as managed hosting packages.

Aside from the advantage of having an expert support team (that doesn't have to waste resources learning hundreds of different platforms like conventional hosting services), Webmasters hosting with WP Engine also enjoy (amongst other great features):

Do you need a blog, website or eCommerce store? Find your ideal Web solution in 30 seconds. Quick, easy & free!

>> your ad here

Performance and speed enhanced for WordPress

Scalable, so don't worry about crashes due to traffic

Free hacking fixes

Secure backups

If you are thinking about using WordPress, then WP Engine is the hosting service for you.

How much you can expect to pay

Free 60 day trial. From $29 to $250 per month, depending.

myhosting business VPS

I included myhosting business VPS because they offer a simpler, more straightforward hosting service. There are far less frills and add-ons, but they're fundamentally good value hosting.

What's nice about myhosting is that they offer real-time scalability. This basically means that if your business blog starts driving real traffic, you can upgrade the server resources quickly and easily to meet the demands of larger traffic volumes.

Despite being a more cost-effective solution, myhosting still offers 24/7 support so they don't skimp out on the essentials.

How much you can expect to pay

Between $19 and $60 per month depending on your requirements.

Yahoo! Web Hosting 

Yahoo! Web Hosting  offers 50% off for the first 3 months. Considering their value offering to start with, this is a great deal.

Yahoo's Web hosting offer should only be considered if you are looking for something really basic. They offer great tools to design and create your website, and they handle most of the technical issues that you might face when hosting a site yourself.

If you want to get online quickly and cheaply as possible then this is the solution for you.

How much you can expect to pay

Around $10 per month.

ServerPronto dedicated servers

ServerPronto dedicated servers are a serious business offering. These guys don't fool around with a 99.9% guarantee - they go that extra 0.1%. That's right, a 100% uptime guarantee.

The guarantee is just part of a service that is dedicated to providing the highest performance with the most power and reliability.

They provide fault tolerant redundant connectivity that makes it really, really unlikely that your servers will ever be unavailable. Combine this with a super high speed 100 Mbps Internet connection and you've got the making of a business website server platform that should handle everything you need until you reach IPO.

How much you can expect to pay

$50 to $200 per month, depending on resource requirements.

InMotionHosting

I've included InMotionHosting because these are the guys I use. In the five years I've been with them, there has only been a single problem, which was swiftly deal with.

InMotion offers robust and high performance business servers (both VPS and Dedicated) and backs them up with good support. They're included here because I'm personally happy to recommend them.

How much you can expect to pay

$40 to $320 per month depending on server requirements

ICANN De-Accredits CIHost.com and Selects Astutium.com to Takeover Domains

ICANN De-Accredits CIHost.com and Selects Astutium.com to Takeover Domains
reproduced from ICANN De-Accredits CI Hosts - Astutium News

ICANN the managing authority for all gTLDs has removed the accreditation from
CI Hosts C I Host.com / net / org (accredited since 4 February 2012).

The termination is due to CI Host's failure to timely cure the policy breaches by 1 March 2013 as set forth in ICANN’s notice of breach of RAA dated 11 January 2013.
They have now been removed from the Published List of Accredited Registrars

As of 1 March 2013, the following breaches remained:
The contact details provided to ICANN by CI Host (telephone numbers, fax number and address) are no longer valid, in violation of RAA Section 5.11 Notices, Designations, and Specifications;
C I Host's failure to provide an interactive webpage, in violation of RAA Section 3.3 Public Access to Data on Registered Names ( whois.cihost.com does not resolve); and
C I Host's failure to timely pay accreditation fees for several months, in violation of RAA Section 3.9 Accreditation Fees..


The cihost.com website was down for a while, but now appears to be back up, although they are still claiming to be an ICANN Registrar

Prior to loss of accreditation, they transferred their own domain(s) to GoDaddy at the same time as abandoning clients domains !

To protect domain name registrants, ICANN has commenced the domain name transition process and selected ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar Astutium Ltd to manage any remaining gtld domain names formerly managed by CI Host Inc.

All registrants affected by the reg-transition process of domains being moved to Astutium Ltd as registrar, will shortly receive 2 emails from astutium.com
#1 with details on how to access our online domain name registration and management platform
#2 a standard whois-dispute-resolution-policy email reminder registrants to update their contact details

We are sorry to see another registrar let their registrants' down, but pleased to be able to assist in helping those affected retain their domain names.

If your domain was originally with CI Host you can check the current registrar on a WHOIS at InterNIC WHOIS which will indicate which registrar you need to contact

ScaleMatrix Unveils Audited Controls

ScaleMatrix Unveils Audited Controls

(The Hosting News) – ScaleMatrix, a San Diego based front-runner in the evolving Cloud and Colocation market, announced today that it has recently been issued Service Organization Controls reports after successfully demonstrating adherence to both the SSAE 16 SOC 1 Type 2 and AT 101 SOC 2 reporting schemes, as published by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA).

Now commonplace, the SSAE16 controls report is the replacement for the retired SAS 70 predecessor. The newly-updated SSAE 16 SOC 1 Type 2 extends the provisions of the SAS 70 report and adds a number of new IT focused attestation features. The AT 101 SOC 2 is a completely new concept, evaluating service organization controls in security, availability, confidentiality, processing integrity, and/or privacy. The report is definable by the subject to include as many of these trust areas as desired, from a single subject to all five areas.

ScaleMatrix’s recent AT101 reporting includes evaluations of controls for all five areas. ScaleMatrix can now share the successful results of these audited controls, including all five trust areas, with clients requiring support for Title 21 Part 11, 45 CFR parts 160-164, HIPAA, SOX, or like solutions.

In support of our international clients, the ScaleMatrix audit staff is fully able to engage international standards such as 95/46/EC and have significant experience with audits and reporting to the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) standards.

“Our ability to help our clients address, respond to, and manage controls structures has proven to be very valuable, helping them meet their reporting and audit response obligations as they pertain to specific verticals, such as financial services, legal services, and managed services to name a few”, said Daniel Zeiler, VP of Technology at ScaleMatrix.

With a burgeoning cloud and managed services business, ScaleMatrix understands the value of maintaining a well-managed controls practice. By operating our data centers in adherence with the strictest standards, by offering pre-packaged cloud and hosting solutions aimed at supporting our highly regulated clients, and by employing certified staff members (Staff members hold: CISSP, CISA, CISM, CRISC & CGEIT) to support each of these offers, ScaleMatrix drives considerable value for our clients trying to navigate complex compliance challenges.

About ScaleMatrix

ScaleMatrix takes an infrastructure-based approach to providing best-in-class hosting solutions to clients at every stage of their IT Lifecycle development. By investing heavily in both facilities and personnel, and developing strategic relationships with critical hardware, software, and support service vendors – we are able to offer our clients industry leading solutions which include design, deployment, and ongoing management as part of our standard offering. For more information on ScaleMatrix, visit ScaleMatrix.com.

Why Your Web Hosting Company Is Failing

So, you started a web hosting company. You promised your customers cheap web hosting with free domain name, unlimited bandwidth, and no downtime. Why aren’t those revenue numbers where they should be? There are some excellent reasons why any web hosting company fails. See if something you’re doing matches with any of these explanations.

Slow Processing Speeds. In a world of smartphones, apps, and instant gratification, you simply can’t take 24-hours to process a new client. You have to offer those cheap web hosting with free domain name services right away. Take too long? You’ll pay the price with a lack of client satisfaction. This, in turn, creates a bad image for your company, and that translates into no revenue for you.

A Lack of Customer Support. Got a guy in another country with a cell phone representing your customer support team? It might have seemed like an inexpensive option at the time, but your clients won’t appreciate your outsourced approach. Make sure that your customer support is on target. Otherwise, you’ll quickly gain a negative reputation.

A Weak Server! Is your system’s main datacenter your PC? Is your PC sitting in your living room? You have a problem. You can’t set up a good service (no matter how great that cheap web hosting with free domain name promise sounds) with a datacenter that’s completely lacing. Solution: rent a server. This is a better, and often more cost effective, solution.

Bad Billing. Clients want invoices that look professional and make a whole lot of sense. If you’re sending out handmade invoices or using a service that’s unreliable (like Excel), your customers will notice. Set up an automated invoicing system, so that clients take you seriously.

Fraud Alert. Most online businesses will become victims of fraud at some point. It happens, but you can try to prevent fraud at all costs. Set up an automated system that has fraud protection built in.

This might not make you bulletproof, but it will help to ward off any fraudulent activities. Why does fraud matter? Once the world knows about fraud connected to your business, people will stay away.

Bad Reviews. Sometimes, a bad review on a review site is warranted. Other times, not so much. Check review sites regularly to see if your company name pops up. If you see a review that doesn’t look accurate, make sure to respond to the reviewer in question. Don’t act with hostility, but get to the root of the problem — and offer a public solution. People want to see that you handle your discrepancies with decency.

Unreachable. Lastly, make sure that your team is always reachable. This may seem like a no-brainer, but so many companies don’t put contact information on a company website. List your phone number, address, email, and other contact details. Make sure that people can reach you — and that you respond accordingly! Offering cheap web hosting with free domain name isn’t enough anymore! Today, you have to prove that you are a legitimate company that cares about clients. Go through this checklist and ask yourself if you have covered all of these bases. Have you?

Global Wordpress Brute Force Flood

As I type these words, there is an on-going and highly-distributed, global attack on WordPress installations across virtually every web host in existence.  This attack is well organized and again very, very distributed; we have seen over 90,000 IP addresses involved in this attack.
At this moment, we highly recommend you log into any WordPress installation you have and change the password to something that meets the security requirements specified on the WordPress website.  These requirements are fairly typical of a secure password: upper and lowercase letters, at least eight characters long, and including “special” characters (^%$#&@*).
You have now changed your WordPress password, correct?  Good.
The main force of this attack began last week, then slightly died off, before picking back up again yesterday morning.  No one knows when it will end.  The symptoms of this attack are a very slow backend on your WordPress site, or an inability to log in.  In some instances your site could even intermittently go down for short periods.
We are taking several steps to mitigate this attack throughout our server farm, but in the same breath it is true that in cases like this there is only so much that can actually be done.  The servers most likely to experience service interruptions will be VPS and Dedicated servers hosting high numbers of WordPress installations, due to the incredibly high load this attack has been seen to cause.
If you are hosted on a VPS or Dedicated server and you would like for us to take a more severe, heavy-handed approach to mitigate this attack, we can do this via means such as password-protecting (via .htaccess) all wp-login.php files on the server.  If you would like our assistance with this, please contact us via normal support channels.
Again, this is a global issue affecting all web hosts.  Any further information we could provide at this moment would be purely speculation.  Our hope is that this attack ends soon, but it is a reminder that we must all take account security very seriously.
We will update this blog post when we have further information.

**UPDATE**
If you have just a few WordPress sites, you can add the additional layer of security mentioned above, as well as block this attack, by following the instructions outlined in this article from our KnowledgeBase: http://support.hostgator.com/articles/specialized-help/technical/wordpress/wordpress-login-brute-force-attack

Web Hosting Sales and Promos Roundup – April 19, 2013

WestHost has launched its Spring Sale, which includes savings on its personal, preferred and business web hosting plans

In the week ending April 19, 2013, MilesWeb is offering a special discount exclusively for WHIR readers, Cirrus Tech is offering a spring sale with up to 50 percent off all hosting plans, WebhostUK has launched its April Double Bonanza special, and WestHost is offering a discount on its shared hosting plans.

MilesWeb Offers WHIR Readers 10 Percent Off cPanel Hosting

MilesWeb is offering an exclusive discount for WHIR readers when they use the coupon code THEWHIR at checkout. The special coupon code gives users 10 percent off its cPanel hosting plans.Each MilesWeb cPanel hosting account is includes a free website builder, 24x7x365 support, one-click software installer Softaculous, phpMyAdmin for database management, 99.95 percent uptime guarantee and a 30 day money back guarantee.

Cirrus Tech Offers Up to 50 Percent Off Select Web Hosting Plans

Cirrus Tech is offering 50 percent off all regular pricing of its web hosting plans. The discount is applicable for one or two year subscriptions and applies to VPS hosting, shared hosting, dedicated private cloud hosting, and cloud hosting plans. It also applies to other services like Exchange hosting, SharePoint hosting and its backup plans. The full list of discounts and coupon codes is available on its website. The deal expires on April 26, 2013. Five percent of all proceeds from its spring sale will go towards Hospice Thornhill, a community-based palliative care organization providing compassionate end of life support to residents and families dealing with life threatening illness.

WebHostUK Launches April Double Bonanza Special

WebHostUK is offering users who sign up for any shared hosting annual plan, biennial plan or triennial plan their next term for free. This means that if the customer signs up for its annual plan, they will get the next annual term free. The offer is available for new customers only, and is only applicable on Linux shared and Windows shared hosting. Customers must use the coupon code “WHUKDOUBLE” to get the free term. The offer is valid until April 30, 2013.

WestHost Offers Spring Sale Savings

WestHost has launched its Spring Sale, which includes savings on its personal, preferred and business web hosting plans. During the Spring Sale the personal web hosting plan is just $3.60 and the preferred plan only $5.99. The business hosting package is $7.95 with the discount. Clients can choose a 12 month billing cycle or receive the promotion for an extended period of time with a 24 or 36-month billing period. The sale continues until April 30, 2013.